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FICEMS establishes new five-year strategy to improve national EMS procedures

The Federal Interagency Committee on Emergency Medical Services recently reached a consensus on the organization's direction for the next five years, including 30 new objectives to enhance national EMS initiatives.

FICEMS members said that during their biannual meeting in Washington, D.C., they developed a five-year plan to improve multilateral cooperation to strengthen EMS methods and strategies across the nation. The meeting resulted in the creation of a new vision and mission for the organization, as well as four immediate actions to take.

FICEMS' new vision statement is "a federal interagency committee that enhances coordination and ensures the strategic alignment of EMS priorities among federal Agencies to ensure quality patient care." Its renewed mission statement is to "ensure coordination among federal agencies, supporting local, regional, state, tribal and territorial emergency medical services and 9-1-1 systems, to improve the delivery of EMS services throughout the nation."

"The mission and vision statements clarify the role of FICEMS and our intention to support the needs and efforts of the EMS professionals across the nation, who deliver care to their communities daily," Acting Assistant Secretary for Health Affairs, Chief Medical Officer of the Department of Homeland Security and incoming FICEMS Chair Dr. Kathryn Brinsfield said.

The new plan includes four immediate steps to be taken: the implementation of the National Prehospital Evidence-Based Guidelines Model Process, enhancing standardization and quality control according to the National EMS Information System-Compliant systems, the improvement of EMS all-hazard multilateral preparedness and enhancing collaboration between state and military EMS providers.

"The long-term strategic goals will help EMS grow in terms of data collection and quality, the development and sharing of best practices for prehospital care and the development of evidence-based guidelines for system implementation," Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response for the Department of Health and Human Services and outgoing FICEMS Chair Ed Gabriel said.